Larder calls for change

Former Great Britain coach Phil Larder has called for England's mid-season international with France to be replaced by a match against a team of Super League-based Australians.

That would provide England with more intense preparation for the end-of-season clashes with Australia and New Zealand, according to Larder, who was national coach for the 1995 Rugby League World Cup and was defence coach with England when they won the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup.

"Mid-season internationals against France and Wales are not the kind of games that will make our young stars battle-hardened," Larder told the April edition of Rugby League World magazine. "They need to be subjected to the pressures that only playing regularly against the best will give."

Tony Smith, who stepped down as England coach after November's Four Nations final defeat by Australia, also mooted the idea of assembling an England-based team of Antipodeans after his side recorded a second consecutive one-sided win over the French last June.

Larder believes such a match would help to create the type of intensive build-up Australia enjoy with their State of Origin series, and he believes Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown would be the ideal man to take charge of the all-stars side.

"A young and talented Australian coach, like Nathan Brown, given control of a team of his own countrymen would be surely motivated to create the kind of intensity that we see annually in the State of Origin," added Larder.

"There are some exceptional Australians playing in Super League, and the ones I have spoken to would love to be involved in these clashes and promise to hold nothing back as long as the games were promoted properly."

The Rugby Football League, who are still conducting a search for Smith's successor, are due to announce details of the 2010 England-France international later this week.